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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of installing and displaying decorative lights, such as a continuous strand of Christmas lights, around a house, while standing on the ground, and without the necessity of having to use a ladder.
2. Prior Art
There are a large number of patents related to this field, but only one, U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,192, specifically addresses a solution for installing decorative light hangers to an elevated part of a house, specifically a gutter lip, while standing on the ground and without the use of a ladder. This patent requires the use of an elongated staff with horizontal rod mounted at one end. In practice, however, this solution requires a difficult and delicate operation to get the hook to seat properly on the wide variety of gutter lips found on houses, particularly when the desired mounting location is at a fairly high elevation (11 feet or more on many houses).
This invention provides a system to easily install and remove hangers for a string of decorative lights around a house, while standing on the ground and without requiring the use of a ladder. The system is particularly intended for attachment to gutter lips, but could be used to attach light strings to a variety of surfaces found on buildings. The system is comprised of two components, a spring-loaded hanger clip which holds the light string, and an elongated staff with hanger clip actuator at one end (hereinafter referred to as the distal end) to temporarily hold the clip until it can be positioned and installed on the gutter lip. The elongated staff has an actuating means which opens and closes the jaws of the hanger clip. In the preferred embodiment, the actuating means is a piece of string. The string connects the hanger clip actuator to an operating means at a further end (hereinafter referred to as the butt end). In the preferred embodiment, the operating means is a hand actuated slider. The user slides the hand actuator toward the butt end, causing the hanger clip jaws to open. The clip is then rested on top of the gutter lip, and the hand actuator is slid toward the distal end, causing the clip jaws to close and firmly grip the gutter. The hanger clip actuator is adapted such that the clip may be rotated in two different axes, if the user wishes to install the clip onto surfaces other than a gutter lip, for example a piece of trim or a light fixture.
In the preferred embodiment, the jaws of the hanger clip are spring loaded and biased in the normally closed position.
In use, the user would first attach the light string to the hanger clip using the clip""s light string retainer. The user then squeezes the two jaws of the hanger clip apart slightly, using two finger grasping areas on the clip. The clip is then inserted onto the hanger clip actuator at the distal end of the staff. The user then releases the clip, and the clip is temporarily retained by positive engagement features on the clip interacting with corresponding negative features on the hanger clip actuator. The hanger clip spring force assures that the clip will be retained on the hanger clip actuator. Using the staff, the user then positions the clip above the gutter lip, and then slides the hand actuator toward the butt end, which opens the jaws of the hanger clip. The clip is then positioned on top of the gutter lip, the hand actuator is slid toward the distal end, and the spring force of the hanger clip spring causes the hanger clip jaws to close and the hanger clip actuator to return to the full open position, releasing the hanger clip. The clip is now securely attached to the gutter lip.
For removal, the reverse process if followed.
For attachment to surfaces other than gutter lips (for example, a piece of vertical trim), it may be necessary to position the clip jaws at other orientations. For this reason, the hanger clip actuator may be rotated from 0 to 360 degrees, with the axis of rotation essentially parallel to the axis along which the hanger clip jaws open and close. In addition, the entire upper portion of the staff may be rotated up to 90 degrees on an axis which is perpendicular to the axis along which the hanger clip jaws open and close, and temporarily locked there. These two additional degrees of freedom allow the attachment of the clip to a wide variety of surfaces, whether horizontal, vertical, or angled. In the preferred embodiment, the hanger clip jaws have surfaces which specifically contour to common gutter lips to better grasp the lip, and are also serrated so that they may securely grasp a wide variety of surfaces in addition to gutter lips. By design, the surfaces on the jaws which contour to gutter lips do not preclude using the clip on other surfaces.